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T Camp Hill, near Birmingham, at the corner of the 
Alcester Road and Stratford Place, there stands an old 
homestead, known of late years as " Stratford House," 
which, on the 2nd July, 1896, will have been in the 
possession of our family for two hundred years. It 
seemed not unfitting that this anniversary should be commemorated in some 
way, and, after considering various methods of doing this, it occurred 
to me that I might, not perhaps without interest to my kinsfolk and to 
such of my friends as have any care for ancient houses, set down a few 
facts as to the history of this one and its inhabitants. Necessity must 
be my apology if, in carrying out this idea and writing this little sketch, 
I chronicle, in the main, the history of my own people. 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 




FR^ONT OF THE HOUSE, 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



With regard to these, I may state that they originally came 
from West Bromwich, where, according to Willetts's History of that 
place, they were settled as early as the reign of Richard II. (1382), 
and where they held considerable property, notably a place called 
Bustleholme Mills. This place is described in a deed of 37 Queen 
Elizabeth (1594), whereby William and Humfrey Comberford did release 
and quit claim to Walter Stanley and his heirs "All their right claim 
and demand in all those fludgates standing or being in or upon the 
water of Tame in or near to a certain ground there called Bustelhome 
alias Bustleholme in West Bromwich and of and in the soyle and ground 
whereon the said fludgates stand and of and in all that parcel of ground, 
stank, or dam containing in length 30 yards and in breadth 15 yards 
being in the Lordship of Wednesbury adjoining to the said fludgates, 
and of and in all water, watercourses and fyshing of the water of Tame 
between the bridge called Tame Bridge and the said fludgates." A 
marriage settlement, made in 1626, by Francis Symcox, of West Bromwich, 
on his marriage with Alice Hayteley, gives to trustees "All that mansion- 
house wherein Johan Symcox my mother dwelleth . . . and one other 
croft near to the stone cross adjoining to the lane leading from West 
Bromwich Church towards Walsall, and three closes lying together in 
West Bromwich adjoining to the land of William Stanley, Esquire, on 
the one side and to a little layne there on the other side and one 
crofte called Longe Crofte . . . and one Little Crofte adjoining to the 
layne leading down to Bustleholme Mill." An Indenture, dated i8th 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



February, 1663, between John Simcox, the elder, of West Bromwich, 
Ironmonger,* and Josiah Simcox, Ironmonger,* mentions lands called 
Bustleholme "now in the occupation of John Simcox" the elder," also 
"about 80 acres lying in West Bromwich in a leet or common field 
there called Linedon (Lyndon) Field." The family also owned property 
in other parts of West Bromwich. By an indenture, dated February 
5th, 1594, William Skeffington, of Fisherwick, and Elizabeth his wife, 
conveyed to Francis Symcock, of West Bromwich "land called Barditch 
lying between the land of George Birch, deceased, and the land of 
William Whorwood, Esquire, and the ancient way leading from Wolver- 
hampton towards Birmingham, and the ancient way leading from West 
Bromwich to Smethwick." This property was conveyed on the 24th 
March, 1670, by the above-mentioned John Simcox, the elder, to George 
Jesson. The same deed conveyed property at " Wiggmorefield," also 
in West Bromwich. The Harborne branch of the family, who 
descend from George Simcox, the younger son of the first William 
of Camp Hill, and who became Lords of the Manor of Harborne 
in 1805, held property at Lyndon until the year 1844. My branch 
retained some parts of their possessions in Linefield (Lyndon) — (a lease 
of various pieces of land there having been granted, in 1772, by 
Sarah Simcox, therein described as of West Bromwich, Widow, and 
her son John, therein described as of Bordesley, Gentleman) — down to 
the time of my grandfather, who took them under his father's will, but 



Ironmaster. See Hackwood's Hist, of West Bromwich. 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



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I have never ascertained what he 
did with them. The family seems 
to have been connected, by marriage 
or otherwise, with the Sheltons, 
Turtons, and other principal folk of 
that time in that district.* 

To come now to the old house, 
always, in my early recollections, 
known only as " Camp Hill." It 
was built, as the date on the lintel 

shows, in 1601, just before the end 

^/^/>^//^/^/V///^y//V^^^;^^ '^/^^^ of Elizabeth's reign, by Ambrose 

otton, whose initials, with those 
of his wife, Bridget, are also cut 
above the door, as shown in the 
INSCRIPTION OVEf^ DOORWAY. engraving. 

The earliest document in my possession, relating to the house, 
is dated the 6th March, 1633, and is an attested copy of a Letter of 
Attorney to give possession of the property to Ambrose Rotton, 
apparently the son of the builder of the house. This Ambrose, in 1636, 
executed a deed whereby he barred an entail created by his father, and 
resettled the property. It is therein described as "All that messuage 

* See Willetts's Hist of West Bromwich, //> i6, 94, 163, 164, 185, 186, 205, 207, &c., &c. 



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SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



or tenement with all houses edifices and buildings thereto belonging, 
with the appurtenances And all that meadow or meadow ground and 
one close or piece of land or pasture with the appurtenances to the 
said messuage near adjoining and belonging and therewith now or late 
used occupied or enjoyed, and all that close or piece of land or pasture 
with the appurtenances commonly called by the name of Moone Field, 
and all that close or piece of land or pasture with the appurtenances 
commonly called or known by the name of Well Crofte, and all those 
three closes or pieces of land or pasture with the appurtenances 
commonly called or known by the name of Fawcon Fields, and all that 
close or piece of land or pasture with the appurtenances commonly called 
or known by the name of Blakefield, all which said premises are 
situate lying and being in Bordesley aforesaid and now or late in the 
several tenures or occupations of the said Ambrose Rotton and Katherine 
Rotton, Wyddow, or their assignees." 

I have other deeds of this family, dated 1647, 1669, 1676, and 1694. 
In connection with the perusal of some of these old documents, it may 
be remarked, parenthetically, that it would probably come as somewhat 
of a shock to the unprofessional reader, especially if he prided himself 
on possessing a fair knowledge of historical chronology, to find himself 
face to face with such a date as I encountered early in my investiga- 
tions, viz: "28 Car. II."; seeing that "Car. II.," according to all 
historians, only reigned twenty-five years in all. But, according to our 
loyal legislators, he was king, de Jure, from the time of the death of 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 




his father, which puts 
another eleven years on 
to his reign. Happy 
was the fiction which 
enabled them thus to 
extend the sovereignty 
of so excellent a man, 
and to ignore Cromwell 
and all his works. 
Nevertheless, there 
might be "a few 
words" about this and 
other matters, should 
the shade of Charles 
chance to foregather 
with the shade of Oliver 
among the meads of 
asphodel, and it would 
be just like Oliver's 
nasty way to remark 
that England would 
have suffered little had 
the whole of Charles's 
reign been as imaginary 
as the first eleven years 
of it. But enough of 
f this, '•''Sat Jiujus," as 
Tertullian hath it. 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



On July 2nd, i6g6, the house and lands came into our family, 
being conveyed by Thomas Rotton and his mortgag-ee to Trustees, for 
the benefit of William Simcox (therein described as of West Bromwich, 
Yeoman) then about to be married to one Mary Tomlinson, and the 
said Mary and their children, William's father, George (also of West 
Bromwich, Yeoman) finding the greater part of the purchase money, 
and the young lady's father the remainder. An abstract of this deed 
is given in the appendix. 

The entail created by the above settlement was barred in 1725, 
and the property resettled (John Turton, therein described as of The 
Brades, Rowley Regis, Ironmonger, being one of the Trustees) upon 
uses in favour of William Simcox and Elizabeth his wife, and their 
children. I have many other deeds, copies of wills, &c., showing the 
subsequent devolution of the property, but they cannot well be dealt with in 
a sketch like this. The old house seems to have been always the family 
residence, to which the son went on the death of his father ; and it con- 
tinued in this course down to the death of my grandfather, who resided 
there with his three sons, John, Thomas, and Edwin. He left his 
widow, Mary Simcox, a life estate in it with remainder to his eldest son, my 
father, John Simcox. My grandmother died there in 1854. Since that 
time the place has been let to various tenants, and always used as a 
school. It now belongs to my brother — long resident in New Zealand — 
my sister^living in North Carolina, and myself, as tenants in common. 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



The land originally attached 
to the house was apparently 
some twenty acres in extent, 
and was, previously to the 
makings of the Midland Railway, 
bounded by the Alcester Road, 
Kyrwicks Lane, and, in part, 
by the Stratford Road, which 
ran througfh the remainder of 
it as far as the Black Horse Inn, 

Among the deeds in my 
possession is a conveyance, dated 
1784, by the Trustees of "the 
roads from Birmingham through 
Warwick to Warmington, and 
from Birmingham through 
OLD BELt., Stratford upon Avon to 

Edgehill," to my great grandfather, John Simcox. In this deed, 
after reciting that a part of the above road "had been adjudged to 
be in a ruinous condition and in a situation very ill-convenient for 
travellers and that the said Trustees had therefore under the powers 
vested in them purchased from the said John Simcox and others divers 
parcels of land lying contiguous to the said old road," the said Trustees 
convey to the said John Simcox "a piece of land being a parcel of the 
said old road containing 1098 square yards situate in Bordesley at or 




SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



near a certain place there called Kyotts Lake, otherwise Ffoul Lake " 
(my birthplace). Conveyances of other portions of the said old road 
were made to John Lowe of the Ravenhurst, Sampson Lloyd, and others. 
We subsequently acquired additional land on the east side of the road, 
reaching from the present Kyotts Lake Road to Henley Street, with 
the exception of a small piece at the corner of the last-named street, 
and adjoining at the back to the old estate of "The Farm," belonging 
to the Lloyd family, pretty nearly where the Sampson Road now runs. 
One of the fields, west of the road, called in my time "The 
Sand-pit Meadow," through which the present Auckland Road was made, 
was, as its name indicates, deeply excavated, the sand therefrom, which 
was of peculiarly fine quality, having been sold, I have heard my father 
say, in the old times, at a guinea a load for casting purposes. A 
substitute for it has, I am told, since been found, but I have some idea 
that sand was not without value, even as recently as twenty-five years 
ago. My reason for this belief arises from the fact that, having let 
this meadow in lots under an agreement for future building leases to 
an individual who was represented to me as being of exceptional probity, 
I was somewhat surprised, after an absence from home, to find no sign 
of bricks or mortar on the premises, but in their place a huge and 
cavernous hole, out of which a number of men were engaged in 
shovelling and carting away loads of sand. It occurred to me 
then that the lessee had taken the same view of the property as was 
taken by the American horticulturist, who said that though his garden 
was small in superficial area it was about 4,000 miles deep, and 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



therefore a possession not to be lightly esteemed. As, however, I could 
not see where my share of the profit of this transaction was to come from, 
I promptly ordered the men off. The lessee, with equal promptitude, 
filed his petition, and an aged but enterprising solicitor of Redditch, who 
had advanced him money upon the agreement {semel insanivimus omnes) 
mingled his tears with mine, "So that day there was dole in Astolat." 
The cellars of the houses now built on this site probably stop somewhat 
short of central fire, but I am unable to say the exact distance. 

In 1838 the Midland Railway cut the estate in two. After my 
father's death I laid out various roads across it, and it is now nearly 
all built upon, but we have never sold any of it, except two pieces, both 
of which the Railway Company took, rather more than twenty years ago — 
one a small nursery garden adjoining the bridge over the Stratford 
Road, and the other part of a field adjoining Kyrwicks Lane. 

The earlier members of our family who owned the house are, 
for the most part, described as Yeomen, which meant, I take it, 
people who lived on, and farmed, their own land. In various 
documents they figure also as Headboroughs (of the Liberty of 
Bordesley), in which capacity they seem to have had, among other 
duties, the pleasant one of collecting window-taxes. They are lastly 
described as Gentlemen, which may mean anything or nothing. One of 
them, at all events, though living long before the blessed days of 
Board Schools, had some glimmering ideas of the advantages of a good 
education, since he took the trouble to endorse in 17 19 (in execrable 
handwriting) on a deed of 1709, with the custody of which he certainly 
ought never to have been entrusted, the following valuable lines : 



II 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 




IC^OZCI^ /- /^7'i/^'?>r 





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Cjoh ^z£ filjn ^-^ac-^ 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



My grandfather was the first of the family who, about the year 
1795, adopted the law as his profession. He was sometime High 
Bailiff of Birmingham, and was known, I am thankful to record, as 
"the honest lawyer." Since his time we have all been lawyers, and 
as honest as we could possibly be with any sort of convenience to 
ourselves. 

When I first remember anything about the old place, my grand- 
mother was living there. The meadows belonging to it, and others above- 
mentioned, were farmed by her old bailiff, Henry Chillingworth — a 
reliable man, who never failed, either in his duty to his mistress or in 
his evening visit to "The Salutation," an old inn, formerly standing 
opposite the Ship Inn at Camp Hill. In connection with this latter 
fact I may mention that my grandmother was small, active, and 
abstemious, while H. C. was large, heavy, and not infrequently "much 
bemused with beer." They both, as far as I am aware, enjoyed excellent 
health, and died at about the same age, 83. 

There was a huge open chimney in the kitchen, with oak settles 
on either side. I remember sitting there as a child at night, and hearing 
the wind roar in the chimney, while old Chillingworth droned monotonously 
from the other side of the fire, "like the murmur of many bees," old 
tales of which I now recall nothing. There was a legend, which I may, 
or may not, have heard from him, but which certainly did obtain some 
credence, and, as I have lately learned, exists to this day, of a sub- 
terranean passage from the old house to the Ship Inn above-mentioned, 



13 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



some two or three hundred yards away. This was, when I first 
remember it, a long", low, thatched cottage-looking place : it is now an 
uo-Iy pretentious "hotel" — a word which I detest— dignified by the name of 
"Prince Rupert's Headquarters," with a statuette of that scientific cavalier 
(I think I have read that he invented mezzotint) over the doorway, 
representing him as consisting of three parts hat and boots, and the 
rest sword. As respects this passage, however — unless it was the original 
"burrow of Birmingham "—I fail to see its value, except possibly to 
"proscribed Royalists," of the Roger Wildrake type, in the time of the 
Civil War. The idea of one of these, seated in his tunnel — medio 
tutissimus, but without supplies, and full of loyalty but of nothing else— 
with his house at one end, and his hostelry at the other, both filled with 
festive enemies, is not without pathos. As some compensation, however — 
to contemplate him under precisely opposite circumstances— he might, finding 
himself at that ancient tavern in the small hours in the condition known, 
Scotice, as having "the malt abune the meal," have utilized this passage 
in lieu of a latch key, for which comfortable implement, even if then 
invented, his front door, being of iron-studded oak several inches thick, 
was ill adapted. One can but hope (feebly) that this arrangement would 
commend itself to his wife, particularly if he brought several other proscribed 
Royalists in a similar condition home with him. But, considering the digging 
and delving which has been going on for so many years in the 
neighbourhood, in connection with gas, sewerage, and other civilizing 
agents, without disclosing the existence of any passage, I shall begin 
before long to tremble for the truth of this legend. 



14 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 




IIQ L D D OKW AYf 



and I especially remember that 
bordered the walks were full 
Lancaster" roses, which had 
allowed to spread everywhere, 
too, grew there in masses. I 



Another recollection is of one of 
the parlour ceiling's which had been 
painted by an Italian artist, of the 
highly decorative school, in a pattern 
which included four large and apparently 
hungry griffins. I do not remember much 
about the pattern, but I remember the 
griffins — no child with the slightest play 
of imagination in the direction of bogies 
could possibly forget them. 

I recall my brother and myself as 

small boys, riding on the wagon horses 

bringing home to Camp Hill the loads 

of hay from the far meadows. The barns 

and out-buildings were extensive, though 

then somewhat ruinous, and abutted on 

the Alcester Road. The garden, which 

was divided from the meadows by 

a sunk fence, was a pretty place, 

the high and broad box edgings which 

of the old damask and " York and 

sprung from the runners which were 

The old sweet-scented white bush rose, 

recall also, with deep satisfaction, the 



15 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



memory of a quince tree, the fruit of which is supposed, I believe, to 
be properly appropriated to the flavouring of apple pies, but which I 
consumed " neat," and a large fig tree by the library window. From 
my remembering this latter plant with satisfaction, I am disposed to 
think that I cannot have eaten largely of its produce ; the fig, at all 
events in the present climate of Bordesley, seldom attaining the luscious- 
ness which attached to it, we are led to believe, in the gardens of 
Bendemeer. 

Here this little memoir ends. It is brief and imperfect, yet I 
am glad to have had the thought of writing it, for I am a lover of all 
old houses, and especially of this one, which for so long sheltered my 
people, and whose days, it may be, draw near their close. Not from 
decay, for, though it has stood for nearly three centuries, its strength, 
the workmen tell me who are from time to time employed upon it, is 
practically unimpaired ; the oak timbers are as sound as ever, and the 
walls as solid as stone. Nevertheless, it has now fallen upon evil times, 
and, were it sentient at all, must bewail its present condition. For 
men's works, as for men, in the lapse of years, 

" Una manet nox, 
Et calcanda semel via leti." 

But I honour its old builder, for he wrought well and faithfully, as 
men once did who loved truth and honesty, and had in their hearts, if 
not in their minds, those noble words of John Ruskin, "Therefore, when 
we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present 
delight, nor for present use alone ; let it be such work as our descendants 



i6 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a 

time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands 

have touched them, and that men will say, as they look at the labour 

and wrought substance of them, 'See! this our fathers did for us.' 

For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor 

in its gold. Its glory is in its age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness, 

of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or 

condemnation, which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the 

passing waves of humanity. It is in their lasting witness against men, 

in their quiet contrast with the transitional character of all things, in the 

strength which, through the lapse of seasons and times, .... 

maintains its sculptured shapeliness for a time insuperable .... it is 

in that golden stain of time that we are to look for the real light and 

color and preciousness of architecture ; and it is not until a building has 

assumed this character, till it has been entrusted with the fame, and 

hallowed by the deeds of men, till its walls have been witnesses of 

suffering, and its pillars rise out of the shadows of death, that its existence, 

more lasting as it is than that of the natural objects of the world around 

it, can be gifted with even so much as these possess, of language and 

of life."! 

J. W. SiMCox, M.A. 



* Seven Lamps, pp 186-7. 

Kyotts Lake, 

Hall Green. 



17 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 




i8 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



APPENDIX, 



id July, i6g6. (^P jTt^^UlUt^ of this date between Thomas Rotton of Bordesley 
Gentleman and Richard Scott of Birmingham Linen Draper of the first 
part, George Simcox of West Bromwich Yeoman and William Simcox 
Yeoman his son and heir apparent of the second part, John Tomlinson 
of Great Barr Weaver and Mary Tomlinson his only daughter of the 
third part, Thomas Dudley the younger of West Bromwich Wheelwright 
and John Eaves the younger of Hampton in Arden Yeoman of the fourth 
part, and John Colwicke of West Bromwich Yeoman and Joseph 
Tomlinson of Delves in the Parish of Wednesbury Weaver of the 
fifth part 

%t 18 (^ttneeeei t^at the said Thomas Rotton in consideration of ;^6oo 
paid to him by the said George Simcox and John Tomlinson ^400 
thereof being paid by the said George Simcox and ^£^200 by the said John 
Tomlinson and in consideration of a marriage to be solemnized between 
the said William Simcox and Mary Tomlinson did grant bargain sell &c. 
unto the said Thomas Dudley and John Eaves 

cSff that messuage farm house or tenement with the appurtenances 
wherein the said Thomas Rotton then dwelt and all that meadow 
thereunto adjoining and belonging 

jRni all that little close of land and meadow then or late 
called Parke Field adjoining to the lower end of the said 
meadow containing together about eight acres 



19 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



jRnb all that other close of land or pasture commonly called 
Mount Field or Moone Field then into two parts divided 
jRnb one other little close of land thereunto adjoining containing 
together about twelve acres 

SXl which said messuage land and premises were situate in 
Bordesley aforesaid and were then or late in the tenure of the 
said Thomas Rotton 
^0 6of6 unto the said Thomas Dudley and John Eaves and their heirs 

To uses therein declared until the marriage and after its 

solemnization. 

To the use of the said Thomas Dudley and John Eaves during the 

life of the said William Simcox 

Upon trust to permit him to receive the rents during his 

life Remainder 

To the use of the said Mary Tomlinson for life for her jointure 

in lieu of dower Remainder 

To the use of such son of the said William Simcox by the same 

Mary as he should by will appoint and the heirs of the body of 

such son Remainder 

To the use of the first second and other successive sons of the 

said William Simcox and Mary Tomlinson in tail male Remaindef; 

To the use of the daughters of the said William Simcox and Mary 

Tomlinson Remainder 

To the use of the heirs of the body of the said William Simcox 

Remainder 

To the use of the said George Simcox his heirs and assigns for ever. 
Powers of sale and leasing. Then follows an Assignment (on trust to attend 
the inheritance) of a satisfied Mortgage term of 1,000 years created by an 



SOME RECORDS OF AN OLD HOUSE 



Indenture dated the ist day of November 1694 between said Thomas 
Rotten and Anne his wife and William Pritchett of Birmingham aforesaid 
Long Cutler and Elianor his wife sole daughter of the said Thomas Rotton 
by his first wife Elianor Bradnocke deceased of the first part, Robert Rotton 
of Balsall Heath in the Parish of Kings Norton in the County of Worcester 
Gentleman brother of the said Thomas of the second part, and the said 
Richard Scott of the third part. 
Usual Covenants for title. 

(B;cecutc6 by all parties and attested. 

(Receipt for consideration money and memorandum of livery 

of seizin indorsed signed and witnessed. 



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